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A North Carolina family's Christmas tree yielded an early surprise -- a foot-long snake that slithered out of the branches and into their hearts.

The Baine family's artificial tree had been kept in the garage of their Zebulon home since last year, and when they brought it inside for this season, six-year-old Rachel noticed a piece of tinsel moving. The culprit turned out to be a non-poisonous corn snake, according to NBC-17 in North Carolina.

"Daddy, there's a snake on the Christmas tree," she said to her father, Tony.

"I thought Rachel was teasing me," Tony Baine told the local news.

Casey Baine posted a video on YouTube of her husband gently pulling the snake from the tree later that night.

"Don't let it touch me," she says in the clip, screaming as her braver husband removed the writhing creature.

"He's cool," Tony said, as the snake lay still in his hand. "He's scared."

Rachel and her brother Eli liked the slithering critter enough to name him Tinsel and ask if it could be the family pet.

Um, no, said Casey.

"The snake wasn't poisonous and was probably harmless but it was still uninvited and unwelcome in our home," she told Britain's Daily Mail.